Job Search Help Available For Power Plant Employees

There are many uncertainties related to next year's closure of the Kewaunee Power Station. But one thing is for sure. About 650 people will be forced to find new employment.

Melissa Emery of the Door County Job Center, which serves both Door and Kewaunee counties, says Virginia-based Dominion is still mapping out details of the type of help they'll provide employees. In the meantime Emery says the workers can contact their local job center for assistance.

Jim Golembeski, executive director of the Bay Area Workforce Development Board says a high percentage of the workers at the plant are highly educated, which makes them more employable in today's competitive job market.

Whether that means job opportunities will present themselves in northeastern Wisconsin or somewhere else Golembeski is not prepared to say.

"Anything I could tell you would only be guesswork," says Golembeski. "My overall impression is that for the most part these workers want to stay in the area and we want to do the best that we can to try to keep them here."

The exact shutdown schedule hasn't been determined. Neither has the dislocation dates for workers, although Emery says workers will be separated into tiers, with different dates for different tiers.

Dominion announced October 22 that it would be closing the plant in the second quarter of 2013 because of the declining price of energy and the inability to find a buyer for the facility.